Mormon church president released from hospital

[April 07, 2017]    By Tom James

(Reuters) - The 89-year-old president of the Mormon church, Thomas Monson, was released from the hospital on Wednesday evening, the church said, following two days of treatment.

Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaks during the church's biannual general conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. on April 5, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/File Photo

Monson "plans to resume his normal schedule and duties today," church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a statement Thursday. Representatives of the faith, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, declined to give further information about Monson's hospital stay.

Church officials had provided few details on his condition after he was admitted on Monday evening, initially saying only that he had not been feeling well and later that he had been dehydrated.

Concerns about Monson's health arose as early as 2015, when local media cited Hawkins as saying Monson "was feeling the effects of advancing age," and reported that Monson appeared visibly weakened during an October 2015 speaking engagement.

Monson became president of the church in 2008 after serving as a first counselor to his predecessor, former President Gordon Hinckley.

(Reporting by Tom James in Seattle; Editing by Patrick Enright and Richard Chang)

[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.